


Schooled

by MenckensChrestomethy



Category: Captain America, Iron Man - Fandom, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domestic Avengers, Education, Fluff, M/M, School, Team as Family, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-08 23:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4325340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MenckensChrestomethy/pseuds/MenckensChrestomethy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"...Like you’re  totally welcome to say no and we’ll still be friends. I swear this isn’t my super villain origin story…” </p><p>Steve was looking at him in shock, “date…?”</p><p>“Um yeah, date. Going steady. Courting. Whatever they did back when you might have dated in the dark ages. I mean, ugh fuck, sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you.” </p><p>Or: <br/>Steve decides he needs to get a modern education. </p><p>Tony decides he needs Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Schooled

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This story was posted before but there was a weird glitch so I decided to delete it and repost it to correct the error. I tried my best to remember the summary/ tags I had before but apparently I am an old woman. 
> 
> Also some minor drug use, if it offends you, skip it.

When Tony looked up from his work his first thought was “huh”. Standing in his workspace was Commander Steve Rogers wearing civvies, shuffling back and forth like a nervous teenager about to ask their crush to prom.  

Tony forcibly tried not to blush at the idea of Steve asking him anywhere, because even if they were pretty good friends who trusted each other on the battle field and off… That probably is one thing he’ll have to keep to himself. Aside from that Pepper leaving him had solidified in his mind that he will end up alone. Just him and JARVIS… and probably three playboy bunnies. 

“Is there a reason you’re here or did you just want to stand there and stare for a few more hours. Not that I would blame you, my face is something that takes at least a few hours to fully appreciate.” 

“What? No… I mean you have a nice— I mean, that isn’t why I’m here,” Steve said stuttering. 

Well that is certainly interesting, Tony thought, Steve never stutters. Steve is confident and poised and a god damn class act. At the very least he is never nervous in front of Tony, they spend half of their lives together after all. 

Still Tony isn’t totally heartless and he can tell something is important to Steve, so he puts down his wrench and turns to face him without distraction. 

“Something wrong Steve?” 

 “Um… Do you remember that conversation we were having in the jet after our last mission… About GEDs?” 

Yes, Tony did remember. Tony technically didn’t have a high school diploma in its most literal sense— he was much smarter than his peers by a mile so at age 15 he asked his father if he could take his GED and go to MIT earlier. MIT was of course thrilled to have him and Tony was thrilled to not be in high school, win- win. 

They had been discussion high school on the jet though, so Tony mentioned it. Looking back he should have seen Steve’s interest more clearly.  

“Yeah, sure I do Cap. What about it?” 

“I… Well its been a really long time since I was in high school… And frankly its a miracle that I even passed. I was sick more than half of the time and I worked two jobs. I mean, I lot has changed since then and… I guess I just… I have been thinking about going back to school for a while but maybe getting a GED first makes sense?” 

“That is a great idea Steve,” Tony smiled. It was a great idea, Steve is a smart guy and in many ways smarter than Tony himself. However, Tony couldn’t pretend that he didn’t see Steve’s flashes of insecurity at the sheer lack of technical knowledge he had though, this would be good for him.

“Yeah… I signed up for these prep classes and I try my best to go to all of them, but you know our job isn’t exactly conducive to structured classroom learning,” Steve said dryly. 

“Is that why you came? Do you want me to hire you a tutor or something?” 

“Oh! No… I… Oh never mind, this was stupid to begin with.” 

“Steve! Come on trust me, I want to help you. You have to know that there is literally nothing in this world that I value more than education.” 

“I got some of the homework from the class I missed and well… I don’t think they taught this back in the day,” he said self deprecatingly, “I’m having a tough time learning it… I was wondering if you could help?” 

Tony froze, but tried to play it cool for Steve’s sake. His crush on Captain America was the least well kept secret in the tower, with the only exception being Steve himself. This was great, a perfect opportunity to spend more time with him. It reminded Tony of his college days when he worked as a physics tutor after class… He hooked up with a lot of people that year.  

“Yeah of course. I’m always happy to help the Star Spangled Man with a Plan.”

Steve rolled his eyes but his shoulders visibly sagged in relief. He reached into the bag that Tony hadn’t noticed him setting down and pulled out some math problems. Tony took one look at it and immediately saw a few problems. From what Tony knew things like graphing calculators weren’t exactly a thing, and Steve didn’t exactly go to a well stocked school when he went. Even if he had, the time since his last day of high school in the 30’s and the volume of information he had to learn after the fact pushed the little things out of his mind. 

This was all to say, Tony would need to start at a pre-algebra level to make sure Steve had the basics, but the homework he was assigned pushed casually past that. 

 “Okay Steve-o, I don’t like any of these questions because they’re stupid and a waste of everyone’s time. I mean we’ll get to them, sure, because you strike me as the type who wants to come to class with their homework done, but these aren’t going to help you….” 

 They spent a few hours the first day working together and Tony had to admit he was impressed. The serum hadn’t made Steve any smarter exactly, but it made him catch on much faster to concepts. In one day working together he was already up to a ninth grade math level. 

 Tony weirdly enough, had always loved teaching. Most people would assume he didn’t because of his temperament but there was something about helping someone get educated that really put a fire in his belly. It reminded him of his own love of learning and, if he were to be cheesy about it, he likes inspiring that same feeling in others. 

 Before long all the other Avengers know about Steve’s plan to get a GED so he could take a few classes as a local community college. 

 Bruce started helping him with science, basic at first with the explanation of the scientific method then moving on to the equivalent of AP biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and environmental science. Tony made him share physics. Clint, surprisingly, had the most information on English, and helped Steve with finding the important books of his time. Granted however, Steve was still the best at all things spelling and grammar related- in part because he grew up in a time where the only way you’d know if you had a comma splice was if you figured it out yourself. 

 It became common place to see Steve sitting at the table working on math problems, or writing practice essays for Clint. 

 What was actually most surprising was how everyone in the team banded together to make sure that Steve learned more than the bare minimum. 

 If Steve knew that they were teaching him WAY more than what would be on the exam he didn’t say anything. He just let Natasha teach him about art history and recent American social history, and let Thor school him in ancient Europe. 

 “Thank you so much Tony,” Steve said one day as Tony was explaining multivariable regressions. Stats wasn’t exactly Tony’s favorite, but Steve had asked.  

“No problem Steve, when is the exam date?” 

“Oh, in one week… I’m getting pretty nervous but you guys really helped me so much. Still its a lot of pressure… Everyone put in so much work to help me and if I don’t pass…”

“Oh Steve, could you do me a favor?” 

Steve looked confused but snapped out of his sulk, “Mhm?”

“Shut the fuck up?” 

“Tony,” Steve… well Steve whined. 

“Seriously Steve, I’ve worked with a lot of people and you are anything but dumb. You learned an entire high school’s worth of information, including the AP’s, in five months. That is impressive, if you don’t end up getting a perfect score I’ll eat my own hat.” 

Steve smiled shyly at him and said that he would hold Tony to that.  

Of course the day before Steve’s actual exam they got the call to assemble; the rest had tried to talk Steve into staying home and preparing but as soon as he heard it was an old nemesis named Zemo he couldn’t be stopped. 

By the time they all got home it was dark, and late. Steve looked dead on his feet and more than a little emotionally drained. The psycho had a “villain gun” to turn everyone into their evil versions. Dealing with evil Captain America took more out of the team, and out of Steve himself, than any of them had been willing to admit. They nearly hadn’t defeated him, and if it hadn’t been for Steve’s own force of will pushing through the mind control Tony was worried they never would have.  

“Get some rest Cap, big day tomorrow.”

Steve raised his hand as he walked away in a casual goodbye and clearly looked like he was about to sleep for another seventy years.  

“JARVIS- make sure Steve gets up in time for his exam. Have a healthy breakfast ready for him when he gets up too?” 

“Zoe’s Pancake House, then sir?”

“Oh you beautiful AI, make sure you order enough for the rest of us too then.”

“Including Thor? I didn’t realize we would be shutting another business down.”

“Hilarious J, truly.” 

“I live to please.”

Tony rolled his eyes and forced himself up to his bed, normally he might try to fix the damage to his suit… But seeing the clear shield indents, and places where a certain Captain sized fist had warped the metal isn’t exactly good for his mental state right now. 

By the time Tony had woken up, Steve had gone to take his first two subject test and had returned. Tony knew that he had two more tomorrow so he didn’t say anything when he saw Steve sitting at the kitchen table with papers spread around him. 

Looking at him like this, studying seriously brought out feelings Tony hadn’t even known he had. Sure he had a crush, and sure Steve was hot… But this thirst for knowledge, this desire for education, to better himself… It made Tony want to drop to his knees and propose. Well propose or proposition, whichever happened first. 

Steve spent the rest of the day studying, and slept early after eating a well balanced meal. 

“I’ve read that it helps with test taking,” Steve said as he ate his disgustingly healthy meal. 

Tony just smiled fondly and thought to himself,  _what a fucking dork._

He was gone again when Tony woke up which left him plenty of time to plan a “you’re officially educated” party. Which is to say, just basically the Avengers and a few close friends having a few beers and eating good food. 

When Steve finally came back in he looked more relaxed than Tony had seen him a while. The stress of the exams had worn on him more than Tony had expected.

“How’d it go?” 

Steve shot him a dirty look, “I’m not trying to jinx myself thank you very much.” 

Tony rolled his eyes, “By the way we’re having some people over tonight to celebrate. So get amped. When do you get your results back again?” 

“About two weeks,” Steve said, “oh is Darcy coming? She promised me something.”

Tony tried not to let a sting of jealousy burn through his body, Darcy was of course very beautiful and hilarious. Tony himself was very fond of her, and had tried to hire her out from Jane at least five times. 

“Mhm?” 

“Oh, apparently there is some really great book she’s bringing. Twilight or something…”

Tony laughed, and laughed. He couldn’t help it, the idea of big, burly Captain America curled up on his couch reading Twilight was too much for him. 

“… Is it another dirty book?”

“No- No… Its just… Wait, another?” 

“She lent me 50 Shades of Gray a while back…”

“What do you think?” 

“Not that impressive honestly… I watched the movie with her too and honestly all I could think was ‘is that all’?”

Tony choked on the idea that Steve didn’t think that the book was kinky enough and imagined how much fun he would have if he ever for the opportunity. 

“On that note, I’m going to finish some stuff up in the lab before the party…” Tony said trying not to imagine Steve and hand cuffs. 

“Um… Okay.”

The party of course, went off with out a hitch. Tony got up to get himself another ginger ale when he looked out over the party. All these people he genuinely liked and cared about, who cared about him… People who he saved the world with. It was crazy.

“You alright there Shellhead?” 

Tony jumped.

“Jesus, Steve. I have a heart condition you know.” 

“You just looked a little distracted thats all.”

“Its just… Nice, Steve. Its really nice to have you guys here,” Tony knew he sounded like the most emotional version of himself but he was so happy. 

“We’re really glad we have you,” Steve said smiling shyly. 

Tony… Well usually Tony’s thought process looks something like a high speed NASCAR race, thoughts zooming, fighting to get past each other. Now it more resembled a car pile up on I-90. 

Which is why he didn’t notice Sam and Natasha sneaking up behind a slightly intoxicated Captain America (gotta love Thor) with a huge bucket of ice cold water. 

“Ahh, god fucking damn it. You fucking assholes,” Steve said cursing as his pale blue shirt clung to him, the world water turning his nipples erect. The water was clearly dripping down his pants, so he quickly ripped them off, with little regard again for Tony’s heart condition. 

“Um, here- my work shop is closer to this floor. Go grab a sweater from a closet in there, you might find some pants too,” Tony said. 

Steve practically ran to the small side stair case that lead directly to Tony’s lab and haphazardly punched his authorization code in while unbuttoning his cold shirt. 

Tony turned back and raised his eyebrows and Sam and Natasha. Sam had the good grace to have some guilt mixed in with his amusement. Natasha just smirked and raised an eyebrow right back. 

“Was there a reason for that or…?”

“Well you know how Steve gets when he drinks… Couldn’t miss the opportunity.”

Tony nodded as if to say ‘fair enough’. Steve sober was a wonderful man, kind, gentle, hilarious but never at the expense of anyone’s feelings, swore rarely and almost never lacked grace. 

Steve drunk well… He swore, he was competitive, snarky, and had no fears of making fun of his team. They loved him both ways of course, but there was something about seeing a man that terrifyingly good, that freakishly in control, lose his cool for even a minute. 

In some of Tony’s more contemplative moments, when he was considering an alternate to Ultron to give himself some accountability he wished the world had more people like Steve. They wouldn’t need any safety measures if every hero had Steve’s personality and belief in honor and justice. Which reminded him that at some point he should probably talk to Maria Hill about some legislation he had been thinking about… But still he didn’t want to push the issue, especially when nothing bad had happened to warrant it. 

All such thoughts left his head as soon as he saw Steve stumble back upstairs and grab the wall. He was wearing… Holy god… He was wearing…

Steve showed up in Tony’s ratty, old, over sized (but of course fit Steve perfectly) MIT sweatshirt that was at the back of his closet in the workshop.

He was also only wearing white boxers with hearts on them. It was so lame that Tony melted a little. 

“Hey Tony, I hope you don’t mind but this is the only one that would fit me.”

“Mi casa y su casa and all that jazz Rogers, keep it. What do I care?” 

“Thanks!” Steve said beaming and knocking over a lamp causing everyone to laugh. His bright blue eyes were hazy and his hair was slightly mussed from pulling the sweater over his head. 

“What are you losers laughing at?” Steve shot at them, causing more gales of laughter.

Tony, seeing what was clearly going to be the Next Great Avengers SNAFU stepped in and raised his glass. 

“Alright kids, time to honor the man we all came for anyway. Raise your glass to Steve, who is finally as educated as a high school senior.” 

Everyone snickered and drank, including Steve who did a shot of Thor’s mead. 

“… And on that note,” Tony continued,”let’s dance.” 

Tony had long since programmed JARVIS to play music at the voice command ‘let’s dance’ so the beat started immediately. Tony walked towards the couches with his mind racing at about average pace. 

 

Maybe if he relayed the thrusters on his suit he could…

JARVIS needs some upgrades, perhaps if he altered his code… 

God Steve looks amazing in his sweater…

Steve’s last suit had ripped at the last battle, maybe he should…

Would Natasha like…

The new phone SI is making needs some serious tweaks before…

 

He turned around his mind still racing and his heart stopped. There Steve was, in Tony’s sweater fucking rap battling Thor. 

What is my life, Tony thought. Seeing Steve laugh so hard in his old college sweater and boxers, his bright blue eyes wild and free… It was getting more and more painful to realize that it wouldn't be a sight he would ever see in his own bed. He wouldn’t get Steve cuddling by the fire in a sweater reading the latest history book he’d picked up. 

“Hey guys, I think I’m going to head to bed. Promised Pep I would go to an SI Board of Directors meeting,” the crowd booed, “hey now freeloaders! Someone has to earn this tower.” 

They said good night as he passed and Steve gave him an almost wounded look. 

“Turning in so soon? But the party just started!”

“Oh well don’t stop on my account. Pep is just going to murder me with a pair of very expensive stilettos if I skip out again. Especially since I have these new updates for the…”

Steve was zoned out. He was trying to fake it, forcing his out of focus blue eyes to stay on Tony’s face but he kept slipping up. 

“Anyway big guy, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll see if I can get your exam results any sooner.” 

Steve nodded and placed a big wet kiss on his cheek, “thanks again so much for the help studying Tony.”

Tony nodded and fled. Trying not to touch his cheek where Steve’s warm soft lips had just been pressed. 

He spent the rest of the night hacking in to Steve’s test results and pushing it through to be graded first. Of course Tony checked to see how he did first, and as Tony suspected he did amazingly well. He crushed the exam, however

Tony would have to eat his hat. The exam he had taken the day after Zemo’s attack had caused him to trip up on one question. 

When Tony saw which one it was he almost died laughing. 

_In what year did Steve Rogers officially gain the title of Captain in the United States Army?_

 

 

The next day Tony walked down to the kitchen to find most of his friends still asleep and laying in random places around the living room. Natasha was curled around the kitchen knives with her back against Bucky’s torso. Clint was  weirdly hanging off the top of a book case, and Thor was passed out face first on the carpet. The others were all in various states of disarray and undress, luckily no one vomited. 

Steve had apparently managed to sort himself out a little more than the others because he had a pillow and a blanket. His face totally relaxed. 

They may have all looked adorable but Tony was still an asshole, which means he still had a god given right as the local jerk to take torture his hung over friends. 

“RISE AND SHINE, KIDS! IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY,” Tony screamed after he finished his first cup of coffee. 

The effect was instantaneous. Natasha shot up in one smooth move, combat ready. Everyone else stumbled up and glared at him. 

“God I hate you,” Clint said laying back down on the floor after jumping down from the bookcase. 

“You all smell terrible. And I spend half my life in a metal work shop, go fucking shower you bums.” 

“Thanks for the love, Tony,” Steve said dryly as he pealed himself off the couch.  

“Oh Steve, that reminds me. I checked last night. Congratulations! You passed with flying colors. You can now take any class you want at any college you want.” 

“Well not any college… They have to accept me.”

“Of course they’ll accept you, you’re Captain America!”

This was apparently the wrong thing to say if the dark look that crossed Steve’s face was any indication. It passed momentarily and Steve looked wryly amused again. 

“You hacked into my test results?”

“Psh, their security was so bad they were basically begging for it. I don’t even think I can, with good tech conscious, call it hacking. It was more like playing a children’s video game.”

Steve rolled his eyes, then rolled his shoulders. He was still wearing Tony’s sweater which apparently surprised him. 

“Oh do you—“ 

“No, seriously keep it. I never use it anymore.”

Steve nodded and turned to the elevator. As soon as he got in the rest of the team turned to him with a smirk.

“No seriously keep it. Also keep me, Steve, because I’m madly in love with you,” Sam said in a falsetto. 

Tony scowled, “I’m just being nice.”

“Mhm, sure Stark,” Clint said reaching for a muffin that was on the counter, “if you were any more pathetic you’d make me cry.” 

“See if I keep providing a home for you ungrateful freeloaders.” 

Bruce just sighed in resignation. 

——

By the time Tony got back from his long day of meetings, paper work and a dinner with Pepper to catch up he was tired. Apparently Pepper had started dating someone new, the lead singer of some alt mopey band called Coldplay. Whatever.

Steve was the only one still awake when he got home. As far as Tony could tell Steve was engaging in one of his best kept vices right now. 

He never talked about it, and to be fair none of them did, but sometimes (very rarely) Steve would smoke a little weed. Usually he would smoke with Bruce, or Tony or the rest of the Avengers but on days when he really needed to get out of his head he would watch cartoons and smoke alone. 

“Hey Tony,” Steve said languidly, “wanna join me?” 

Steve offered up the joint and Tony took it from his outstretched hands. 

“You wouldn’t believe the bullshit day I’ve had,” Tony said sitting down next to him, “I hate the board. I really hate them. If I have to spend one more day being lectured about stock market returns by a man in an ill fitting suit I’m going to jump off of something.”

Steve said nothing, so Tony took a long drag and held it in his lungs savoring the sweet burn. 

It was actually pretty fascinating that the drug worked on Steve at all. After a few, sort of high, experiments run by Bruce they had learned that because THC is so lipid soluble, and crosses the blood brain barrier with relative ease. Since it goes directly to the brain and replaces certain neurotransmitters it takes a bit longer for Steve’s serum to wash out. However it still does pass through his system faster than most other people. Normally traces can be found up to  months after the initial consumption of THC but with Steve you can barely find a trace two days later. 

It was fascinating. 

Steve was fascinating. 

“So is there a reason you’re here alone?” Tony asked. Steve only smoked when something bad happened. 

“I keep having nightmares about Zemo… What he made me do to you guys. I saw Clint’s broken ribs, I just…” He looked so irritated, but also so glazed over that Tony took pity on him. 

“Fair enough. Whatcha watching?” 

The two proceeded to get pretty baked and watch Disney movies. They were half way through Lilo and Stitch when Steve turned very seriously to Tony. 

“Tony, we are Ohana.”

Tony laughed and said, “‘kay, that makes me Stitch.” 

The two proceeded to double over in hysterical giggles. Tony glanced over at Steve, whose normally clear blue eyes were turning red and smiled fondly. 

“I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry.” 

“i have to eat a lot! The serum…”

“Sure, whatever you say Mr. Munchies.” 

They wandered over to the kitchen where Steve proceeded to eat a frankly disgusting amount of food while Tony helped.

“So have you given any thought to what classes you want to take now that you can?”

Steve looked thoughtful, “I was thinking maybe a Computer Programming class?”

“Really?"

“Yeah, I figure that will come in handy more often than not. Well I wanna take that class and a class in post-Modern literature. Finally catch up, you know?” 

“You’re always reading though…. Always! How are you always reading? Why aren’t you always hanging out with me?” 

“You’re always working Tony-Tony- Pepperoni.” 

They both started giggling again. 

“Read anything good lately Stevie?” 

“Its nice when you call me that… Oh I read Slaughterhouse- Five. I fucking loved that book, it was amazing.”

They stayed like that, chatting about the books that Steve had loved and what he wasn’t a fan of (apparently The Catcher in the Rye did little to inspire him). 

Steve got very quiet like something was bothering him before asking, “Hey Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t think… You don’t think a college would only accept Captain America right? Like they might also want Steve Rogers…?”

“Is that why you looked so salty when I said that at breakfast? Of course you’re amazing whether you’re Steve Rogers or Captain America or both. Steve you’re a great guy, don’t you ever forget that.” 

“Thanks Tony, I really appreciate it.” 

Steve was very close to him now, the whites of his eyes blood shot from the earlier drugs and his movements slow and relaxed like they had all the time in the world. It filled Tony with panic. 

Tony glanced down at his watch and saw that it read 4:30AM. 

“Steve I gotta crash,” Tony said after a lull in the conversation. 

It wasn’t Tony’s imagination that Steve looked disappointed when he said that. Still Tony was starting to feel very heavy and tired, and he wanted to renovate Sam’s wings tomorrow. 

“Good night, Tony,” Steve said softly holding Tony’s face in his (huge, beautiful) hands. 

Tony stumbled back. 

Is it possible that Steve might be interested too? He had no real proof that Steve was straight, should he ask him out for dinner? 

Fortunately the drugs made Tony very tired so he fell asleep the second his head touched the pillow and no longer had any time to obsess. 

——

For the next week Tony was swamped with work, he barely had time to see anyone in the team. Between SI meetings about his most recent R&D, and fixing the team’s armor he was starting to believe he was never going to have free time again. Before, in what felt like a previous life, that would have been great. He had no need for free time anyway, and nothing calmed him like working in his shop. 

Now, he missed movie nights with the team. He missed breakfast where everyone teased each other lovingly. He missed Bruce cooking dinner while Natasha chopped vegetables at a frankly alarming pace. He even missed Bucky snarking while Tony played video games, making fun of his aim. 

Still he owed Pepper literally his life. Besides that he ran SI for years, and took it to its current multi-billion dollar status. You don’t do that by sitting on the sidelines and not being an actively involved member of the decision making process. Pepper might be doing an amazing job, but he couldn’t help but be a little bit of a helicopter parent with his baby. So he took a drink of his coffee and started sorting through the hundred page contract for a recent acquisition. 

He must have been down longer than he thought, combing through the wording with a fine toothed comb because he had apparently at some point fallen asleep over his work. He only realized this when he noticed he was being lifted bodily away from his desk. 

“Wha— Nat, what the hell are you doing?” 

“You’ve been down here too long. You know there is such a thing as working too hard,” she replied. But he had lived with her long enough to know she really meant, “we miss you, stop being a recluse.” 

“What time is it?”

“Its about eleven.”

“Morning or evening?” 

“… Evening. Jesus, Stark, could you at least pretend to take care of yourself.”

“What are you guys all doing on a Thursday night at eleven?”

Natasha’s smirk was down right evil when she said, “Movie night. We’re watching Sharknado.” 

Tony grinned because Steve hadn’t seen that particular work of cinematic genius yet and he was always happy to be there when Steve first saw them. 

Everyone else was gathered in the living room in front of the huge TV, Bucky and Sam were fighting over popcorn and sitting near Steve’s feet. 

“I am victorious,” Natasha said dryly. 

The group cheered.

“Nice to see you again, Stark. Starting to think you moved out,” Bucky said. 

Tony rolled his eyes, and sat down in his normal place next to Steve. 

The movie started and Tony had already seen in at least two times so he wasn’t concerned with “plot” (as if there were much of one to begin with). Instead he and Bruce made fun  of the “science” of the film. He also did some light  chatting with Steve only to find out that he had received his results back early. 

“Looks like you’ll have to eat your hat after all,” Steve said with a side smile. 

“I can’t believe you don’t know when you officially became a Captain.” 

“I forgot! So I just guessed. That is what they tell you to do if you don’t know the answer,” Steve responded snootily. 

 Tony grinned, it was nice to be back in the world of the living. It was also nice to live with people who cared enough to know whether or not he was getting enough sleep and food. He settled in more and made another snide remark to Bruce about the absurdity of their plot line and enjoyed Steve’s heat next to him.

In the week that he had been swamped with work he had also been swamped with considering whether or not dating Steve was a real possibility. Should he ask Steve to dinner? Would he say no? Worse, would he say yes thinking its two guys getting dinner together? 

Still he is not sure that he could live with himself if Steve might have been interested and he never did anything out of fear. That said, he wasn’t the greatest at relationships. Pepper had been a keen example of it, but Tony felt that perhaps with Steve it would be different. As brilliant and kind as Pepper is, Steve knows what it is like to be well… A super hero. To dedicate his life to fighting a fight that would most probably end in death or at the very least a great deal of property damage. 

He turned it over and over in his head while the movie played, before deciding that tomorrow he was going to take the leap. The back half of his brain already considering whether or not flowers were too much of a gesture or not. Considering whether or not confessing his undying love was a bit too early in the game (conclusion: yes it was). Debating clothing choices (Iron Man suit? Wife beater? Sports coat? Tux?). 

Tony spared one more side glance at Steve who was looking at the television with mild horror as the main character ripped a shark that was flying at him in half with a chainsaw. Even if he wasn’t interested, Steve was the least prejudicial man Tony had ever known. He had taken swings and misses for people worth half of Steve’s caliber— if there was even a snowflakes chance in hell that Steve might want him too then… Well he was going to try. 

—-

The next day came earlier than Tony thought it would. It was dumb to say, but he still felt it. He calmly picked an outfit (after three hours and seven changes) that he felt said “I like you enough to want to look good, but not so much that I’ll suffocate you.” With that and two tickets in his hands he went to the elevator to Steve’s floor. 

 “Hey, J, tell Steve that I’m coming to his floor.” 

 Tony hadn’t actually been to Steve’s floor since the modeling of the building. He imagined that it was probably very clean and organized. No clutter and very “soldier”. 

 He was wrong. 

What he noticed first was a very flustered Steve standing in his living room trying to make it look neater. 

The second thing he noticed was that everything was broken. Everything. The tables, the chairs, the lamps, the television set, heck even the couch was broken. It looked like a war zone, and Tony couldn’t help but wonder if this is why Steve was literally almost ever on his own floor. 

“Um… Is there a reason that your room looks like you’ve been fighting super villains in it? You haven’t been have you? Because that would be crazy if somehow they were sneaking in to just your floor undetected… I wonder if they could… Why would they pick you? Well I guess Hydra does have a special hatred in it’s heart for you. Weird, I should look in to that.”

“No Tony, I am not holding any type of villain fight club in here… I just, early in the morning, or sometimes late at night, I don’t always know my own strength and…”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to be a bother,” Steve said turning bright red. 

“Steve it’s okay. Do you know how often I have to replace things on Thor’s floor? And he doesn’t even live here most of the time.” 

Steve nodded but he was still blushing bright red. Tony took another look around and noticed that while the objects were all broken and barely held together with duct tape, the walls were covered in painted murals Steve had done. 

There was one of the New York skyline as Steve had known it, overlaid with the painted faces of Peggy Carter and the rest of the Howling Commandos. 

Another wall had a huge painting of the Avengers in their places of comfort. The painting of Tony was bathed in blue light as the figure hunched over metal. Natasha was at a ballet studio, her hair tied back and her face serene. Bruce in a jungle holding a legal pad as if taking notes… And more and more of them all in different splices that were painted as if in different floors of a building. It was amazing to look at, truly stunning. 

“I love you,” Tony said after staring at it for several moments silently.  

_Mayday, mayday, abort, abort_ Tony thought as he spun around to face Steve with a feeling of panic seeping through his gut. 

“Um… I mean, do you want to go to a musical with me? Because declaring that you love someone before you ask them out on a date is crazy and I’m not crazy. Well I’m a little crazy but I’m not “crazy psycho stalker” crazy. Like you’re  totally welcome to say no and we’ll still be friends. I swear this isn’t my super villain origin story…” 

Steve was looking at him in shock, “date…?”

“Um yeah, date. Going steady. Courting. Whatever they did back when you might have dated in the dark ages. I mean, ugh fuck, sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you.” 

“You love me…?” Steve said sounding even more faint.

“Well yes, but that isn’t really the point right now. I mean it is sort of the point, and I don’t really see how it’s my fault. In fact its your fault, for being so damn smart when I was teaching you, and for being cute and funny, and for looking so damn hot but also so damn lovable in my sweater. For not giving a rat’s ass when the tabloids had a field day when you wore it for your run. The way that you drink to have fun, and smoke when you want to… The way that you know how to be the best man you can possibly be but that never stops you from having a good time with the people you love because you really believe that morality has nothing to do with how you choose to have fun… What I’m really trying to say is I would love the chance to take you to dinner.”

Tony was practically out of breath by the time he got to the end of that. He was definitely breathless when a slow, pleased smile worked its way over Steve’s face. 

Steve moved forward slowly, his smile large and goofy and said, “I thought you would never ask.”

 “Is that a yes?” 

“Of course it’s a yes, you idiot,” Steve said and leaned down for a kiss. 

After that Tony said very little, other than making a quick joke of how he, “never expected Steve to put out before the first date.” 

Steve rolled his eyes and said, “only for people I love.” 

 

… And yup, Tony was breathless again. 

 

———

 

Several months later Tony came home from a gala Pepper insisted he go to in order to sure up some contract disputes, Steve was sitting in Tony’s penthouse on a laptop. His hair messy from where he had run it through in frustration and his pretty blue eyes narrowed with dark bags under them. He was wearing Tony’s sweater and a pair of Iron Man boxers. 

 “Lucy, I’m home,” Tony said as he began taking off his well tailored tux. 

Steve, who moved weirdly silently for a man of his size, was suddenly pressed against Tony’s back breathing in the scent of his expensive cologne.  

“Whoever invented programming is a cruel psychopath. We have to stop them,” Steve said whining in Tony’s ear while nuzzling his neck.

Tony chuckled and turned around accepting a kiss from the beautiful man he had been sharing his life with for over eight months (eight months!!). Steve had started taking a computer programming class at the local college and while he loved the opportunity to learn, the language didn’t come as naturally to him as most other things did. Tony tried not to feel smug about it, especially because Steve had the bad habit of taking to anything he started like a duck to water. 

“Yeah? Screw bad guys, huh? Lets just destroy the ghost of Ada Lovelace.” 

“Every time I try to run my damn code it keeps telling me I have an error! No matter what I do. I’m a good person, Tony. What did I do to deserve this?” 

“Awe, poor baby. Is the big bad computer bullying you?”

“I’m serious, Tony. It’s evil. Definitely possessed. I should get my shield.”

“Somehow I don’t think that your shield is going to help you that much right now, love. Here let me see if I can help you.” 

Tony began walking to the computer when Steve’s huge hand curled around his wrist.

“Nah, you had a long day. You can help me with my homework tomorrow,” and Tony really wished he wouldn’t phrase it that way. Steve’s preternatural youth already made Tony feel like he was practically dating a high school senior. 

“Oh yeah? What should we do instead?” Tony said running his hand down his old sweater. 

“I’ve been told I’m a master tactician, Mr. Stark,” Steve said his eyes glinting with mischief, “so don’t worry. I have some ideas.” 

“Is that so?” 

Steve pulled out a pair of reinforced hand cuffs and smirked, “how about it Mr. Stark?” 

“Oh yes… Yes, I think I will be keeping you,” Tony said reverently. 

Steve’s bright, bark like laugh filled the room. 

Yeah, Tony thought, I am definitely going to keep him. 


End file.
